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AN APPEAL 






David L. Childs, 

EDITOR OF THE A NT ML A VERY STANDARD, 



TO THE 



ABOLITIONISTS. 



From the Pennsylvania Freeman. 
To D. L. Child — Respected Friend, — A few 

readers of the Standard in this region, who also 
profess friendship for our principles, have intimated 
a prospect iud the principal 

reason given, is, that the Stand ird has been a very 
judicious paper, and that its late editor evidently 
means to vote for Clay, and that if he ran, with his 
superior opportunities of viewing the whole ques- 
tion, they can vote for him. I think, myself, the 
Standard has given evidence sufficient to lead to 
such a conclusion, and as the truth upon the point 
is important, I respectfully request thee to inform 
thy numerous friends of the facts in the case, through 
either the Standard or Freeman. 

Truly tliy friend, .'. FULTON, .Ik. 

Answer of D. L.. Child. 

To James Fci.tov, Jr ., of ErcilJoun, Pa. 

Dear Sir: — I consider the Annexation of Texas 
the most important Ami Slavery question which is, 
or can be agitated at this time. The champions of 
Slavery, the acknowledged representatives of slave 
interests and opinions, have declared, again and 
aoain, in public and in private, in speeches, resolu- 
tions, editorials, toasts, and official documents, that 
this measure is vital to the existence of Slavery — 
so vital that they will have it, with or without 
Union. They do not overrate its importance. 

Distinguished Southerners of all parties have ad- 
mitted, without a dissenting voice, that Slavery 
must come to a speedy end in the old slave States, 
ai.d would, in fact, have come to an end long ago, 
were it not for the American slave-trade. Mr. 



in favor of continuing the gng rule, lays down 
proposition as unquestionable, that to prohibit 
American slave trade would be equivalent to the 
Abolition of Slavery. The results of the last cen- 
sus show, that during the ten years, from 1830 to 
1S10, 321,003 slaves were transferred from the 
slave raising to the slave consuming States, and 
that sixteen ■,. tr e used up, i. e. brought to 

premature death, by overtasking, underfeeding, 
cruel punishment and sudden violence. This is 
more than half the number slain at the massacre of 
St. Bartholomew's, at the name of which, the world 
still shudders. 

The value of the slaves thus transferred, chi 
by means cf the American slave trade, estimated 
at the price of the market whence they are carried, 
is $160,531,506, exceeding by 8130,531,500 the 
total value of all the slaves obtained by all nations, 
during the same period, from Africa. If the com- 
paratively small sum of thirty millions could tempt 
the African chiefs and kidnappers to perpetrate the 
enormities which make that continent a bed of tor- 
ture to its children, to what excesses may not a 
hundred and sixty millions impel Christian slave 
masters and traders — 

■•A race more polished, more severe tl.an they." 

The foregoing results are based upon the ac 
number of the slaves in 1840, without taking into 
account what that number ought to have been. Ji 
is obvious that there ought to have been a pro 
tional increase of slaves, o/ual, at least, to that of 
the whites, because it is a common, and I will say, 



Wise, in his report at the late session of Congress, I an impudent boast of many of the slaveholders 

rj3=-For sale a! the office of the ALBANY EVENING ..y.LKNAI.. Price I bred, or $10 ; . 

Orders must be addressed to WHITE a.- rilN EYC K, 6? 8 . J>» y. 



- 

A all care and anxiety aboul 
g for the future, is a coi : t the loss 

of liberty ! This is the happiness of - 
a certain extent it pi ; htrc 

1, it would tell upon the 
vever, with the 
n been a little short of twenty-fit 

\a been almo- cc is 

making the increase ol 
jur , ban it should 

: ding to the ratio of the increase of 
■case faster 
\itct, because the extraordinary stimulus 
• States to the production 
tern for the market, causes a larger proportion 
f s l ... to come into the world, than there 

["hue the two last censuses, the only 
ones which have classed the slaves " under ten," 
show a proportional excess of this class over the 
corresponding white one, of two per cent, in ten 
excess continued, as it should, 
through all the subsequent classes of slaves, they 
Id have increased, from 1830 to 1840, more 
i.870 than they would have done by the white 
le lack of just increase of the 
slaves during the ten years preceding the last cen- 
sus, was therefore no less than 239,224. The ex- 
;it of the reproductive power, especially 
. r circumstances which should give it exlraordi- 
scope, is as positive and conclu- 
de of the destructive tffects of slavery, 
rade, as the immolation 
g. This is 
subject under its physical a 

ilt and wo is concealed from 

. der this superficies; what heavy 

v many ge- 

_essions to the i. 
cit importations from the isl 
i Africa. There 13 aba 

,csc accessions are considerable. — 
i a slave in that 

much 

timated the 

price 

i see pt 

a cargo. The oi 

i . 

i.. i r , 1 re the 

mo '.o smuggle,— they may lie quickly 

v boat* on a desert coast ; and they trans- 
port ib< msclves without roads. They are also u.v 



V 



? 

iv night and desecndingT>y day, disposes of 

them as if they were brought down from Kentucky, 

Tennessee, or the interior of an Atlantic State. The 

increase from this source, and consequently the in- 

> I expenditure of life, which it would show, 

I lie ascertained. 

If the American slave trade should cease, slavery 
would speedily be abolished in all the slave raising, 
i. c in all the farming slave States. This is so r 

|y admitted by Southern men, that I shall no. 
present the abundant proof thereof, which is at 
hand. Mr. Clay, in an address delivered before 
the Colonization Society of Kentucky, in 1829, 
said : — 

" Farming agriculture cannot sustain it, [the 
price of slaves,] for it is believed that nowhere in 
the farming portion of the United States, could 
labor be generally employed, if the proprietor 
were not tempted to raise slaves by the high price 
of the Southern markets, which keeps it up in his 
own." 

Thomas J. Randolph, a grandson of Jefferson, 
said in the Virginia House of Delegates, in 1832: — 

" It is a practice, and an increasing practice, in 
I Virginia, to rea ■ mat k : — 

rabh mind, a patriot, and a lovc-i 
of his country, bear to see this ancient dominioi 
converted w: * * * 

where men are to be reared for the market like oxe: 
for the shambles. tha 

the slave trade, that trade which enlisted the goo 
and wise of every creed and every clime to abolis 
The trader receives the slave a stranger i 
language, aspect and manner, from the mercbai 
who hal brought him from the interior. The tit o 
of father, mother, husband and child, have all I 
rent m twain ; his soul has become callous. B .. 
here, sir, individuals, whom the master his known 
from ii -'i" l l )C in- 

nocent gambols i ii 

customed to look to him for pro irom 

the mother's arms and sells into a • itry. 

In my opinion, sir, it is inucli 

In 1833, Mr. Harrison, of \ lid :* 

result of extensive inquiries, 
opor- 
plantations, with from I hun- 

dred slaves, actually bi r * in debt 

would once have been deemed in Virginia very 
sheer ecoflomy. 
Tobacco waa the onlj article, which would by 
bility justify the ei : ivo 1 tbor in \ ir 

-,•.:-( r planti rs are to a 
di gree withdrawing their lands from it." 
•• We will now let l 
slavi b !1 which it 

t Blavi .- on a plant itioo are 
profitable in Virginia, is in the multiplication ol 
ih< ir numbers by birth*. " " The process ol multi- 
plication will not in this way. [that of farm labor,] 
advance the master towards the point of a net i 
r.ue. He is not richer in income with tifty slaves 
iftt these young negroes have 



American De . 



" 



'.hi.'r value ; and what value 1 The value of slaves 
ia the certain price for which they will at any time 

cell to the Southern trader. " "That master alone 

productive value in the increa 
who c ilar intervals into 

money at rice." 

"It all these sales were the result of the neces- 
of the masters, while it must fi rever be la- 
Id at the same time bo the 
iitous proof uf the financial rum of the planters 
of the State. But if otherwise, but a common 
-•: uf business, regularly "one into for profit, 
what volumes does it speak of the degradati 
which slavery may reduce its supporters .' and will 
' the aspiring blood of Lancaster' endure itv to be 
said that a Guinea is to be fi and in America, and 

Guinea is Virginia ! That children arc r< 
with the express object of sale into distant regions, 
and that in numbers but little less than the whole 
number of annual births ! It may be trial thi 
a small section of Virginia, (perhaps we could in 
ite it.) where the theory of population is studied 
with reference to the yearly income from the sale of 
slaves/' 

I suppose the writer to allude here to the Old 
>ern Shore, a part of the district which has given 
as Tyler, Upshcr and VI 

"Mr. Marshall, (son of the late Chief Justice,) 
has told us that by the census of 1830, the number 
of slaves in Eastern Virginia under ten years of 
age, exceeds that of whites of the same age more 
i 31,000." 
I remark here that the whole white population of 
Eastern Virginia' is nearly equal to the whole slave 
lation of the same district. 
Mr. Harrison continues : 
"Shut let info the Southern ar, ' 

'era States, and the price of slaves in Virginia 
sink down to a ei 
On this point Mjt. Cay also, four years earlier, 
said : 

" That adult slaves will in process of time sink 
in va'.je even below a hundred dollars each, I have 
not a doubt. This result may not be brought about 
by the termination of the fir>t period of their redu- 
plication, but that it will come, at some subsequent 
and not distant period, I think perfectly clear." 

By the successive acquisitions of Louisiana, Flo- 
rida, and the Indian reservations, and by the prohi- 
bition of the foreign slave-trade, a prodigious im- 
pulse was given to the American slave trade. It is 
no wonder therefore that the highly penal statutes 
against the foreign slave trade, which a Virginian 
has told us is less inhuman and demoralizing, have 
all originated with Virginia. The value of an Ame- 
rican slave as estimated by Mr. Clay in 1839, was 
thirty-three times as great as the estimate made in 
Congress in 1790, on the occasion of the presenta- 
tion cf the first petition on the subject of slavery. 
No other species of property of vast extent, has 
ever been enhanced at such a rate in this country, 
or perhaps in the world. This has been wholly the 
result of the action of the government. At the in- 
stance of the American slave raiser, Congress gave 



bim a ii ! 

known to the law. At the iubtance of the cottot 

v, which was the second ac 

the present md tha ( 

i remained ever since, except when it wa 

reduced under the compromise upon so 

veral of the Southern presses, with the tacit acqui 

escence of the whole South, calli d 

tion The vast acquisitions of territory madi 
at the common expense, have redounded chiefly u 
the advantage of the slave interest. Several o 
them were made upon the demand o{ slavi 
and avowedly for their benefit. As to Louisiana 
t Mr. Clay speak. Having bi3en cotempo 
rary with the transaction, and even then a conspicu 
ous and influential man, and having always been ii 
a position to observe the movement of tl 
market, his statements are invested with the highes 
authority. In the discourse already referred to, hi 
says : 

"Prior to the annexation of Louisiana to th 
United States, the supply of slaves from Africa wa 
abundant. The price of adults was generally abou 
SlOO, — a price less than the cost of raisin^ an in 
fant." 

"After the United States abolished the slave trad 
the price of adults rose very considerably." 

" What ha i the price of slave 

in the United States, has been tl ict of th' 

acquisition of I . but especially the increas 

.nd for cotton. The price of cotton, amucl 
more extensive object of culture than the sugai 
cane, regulates the price of slaves as unerringly a 
ai v one subject whatever is regulated by any stand 
ard." 

In the face of these facts, a large portion of th 
slaveholders have always, except during the period 
of the war, embargo, and noa-intercourse, com 
plained, and are now more than usually con: 
that they are impo- the governm 

The price cf slaves has declined since 183G-7 
and it will probably never rise again to the mark o 
that day, unless new and extensive territory, adaptei 
to the culture of colonial articles — but esp< 
sugar, shall be obtained. 

Since the year 1830, two States, Georgia ant 
Tennessee, have been added to the slave exporting 
States. There are now but five St. tes and on< 
Territory, which are strictly slave consuming; ant 
two of these, Alabama and Mississippi, have long 
prohibited the introduct ion of slaves (or sale. Then 
remain now only Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas am 
Florida, into which a slave can be lawfully intro 
duced for sale. Missouri is a farming State, am 
will soon export slaves. Arkansas is more a farm 
ing than a planting State, and will ne\ er be of muc! 
consideration as a slave market. Florida, thougl 
possessed o( some good planting lands, is generally 



- 
words, ■ 

traders and nullifi 

it, by hold;, g 
10 thi • -ct of an increasing consumj 

' rer planta 

I re ol Louisi 

and the H 

world,* that the annual lots on 

"by deterioration" of the bI 

According to a letter of a Georgia 

. i ontained in the 

document s if not 

are healthier, 

and rr.u'. plantation, ti. 

idly lor the humanity of 
rs, v. ho sse >\-\\c labor, because in 
r and colon] 

icts the bitl 

•urer, at.d ■ multjply- 

.:n from 
ris would b« 
lor the annual accession of new 

,s, to induce 
riotism in 

• d, and obtained, and have alwa} a obtained, 

. .■ ■ :.-. . .. 

" the prmce of nollifiers," and " king that shall be*' 

of the new Southwestern and Texas free trade slave 

■ tlcraty. being inquired of by the sugar planters 

rcsri' rotection ol i >", de- 

.n fa- 
vor of a strictly revenue tariff, but " in I 

," and " with the .scope which 
the rule- will admit, he would take plea 

■ 

States, 

• the price • and of 

; • 



■ 



siana 

. . 

the rei ' ■ . . . 

by al! the . the government, as the sole 

itaining that ten t< • 
',' ■ \ mid seem to be something oj 
nee and preeision ol a physical 
to bring cycle, a new demand for 

v. Had it not been for former 
sition-. lavery would have been abolished before 
now in Delaware, ' of Colum- 

bia, Virginia, North-Carolina and Kentucky, I I 
some of them long ago. I have been informed 
. of Mr. Clay. New and powi 
causes are now operating to precipitate this 
I, to carry emancipatioi . 
■ frontier, into the very heai 
the intended nullification confederacy. Tl 

I ;ir' , want of variety in the o jeets of 
cultiv.. 

rity of slaves as manufacturers ; the over prodtn 
of cotton, the est I y the British mi. 

and Parliament of the principle of laying diffi 
tial duties in favor of free labor, and the compc ti 
now n iopulous and vast territories 

of Bi: lich will undoubt- 

edly be aided at an early day by the applicatii 
the differential principle, and aggravate.. 
itself if it remain independent. ' And here i 
utter my first word for the special benefit of the 

ID6. It is th:s : Calhoun has declared n 
edly that kt 

The knaves 
upon this. 
In the \ i l, Mr. 1 

the negotiator of t: 

"The value of slaves as an article of property. 
ich on the state ol tiie m irkct at) 
N >thing i- more fluctu ••!,;.; i . in the value of tlaves. 
A late law of Louisiana reduced their value tv» 

>er cent, in two hours after its passage « >> 
known. If it should be our lot to acq ^trr tit-: 
.-■ill rise again." 

From these considerations, I lay down with great 
confidence, this proposition, that in the pn 

. and with the present t I the slave 

market, the slav. lea will B00J 

themselves in eai 

TCr y. Th( ■ ■• i have no alternative but tb 
general bankruptcy, togcthi 
. increasing danger of insurrec 
ciiiin withoui th< 

dram I Iment of John Randolj h 

I 

But let T( 



■ 

rice of slaves, will be 

greater, and .-, than that of all 

of slave territory. Texas, as 

ied by act of its Congress, and as we shall ac- 

it, (if we of i he free States are capable of 

i d villainy.) will form a 

ton acknowledgi . many States." 1 

380,0.00 square miles, being ne irly twice the 
extent of France, nine times that of New- York, 
limes tii.it of Pi ten timeu i 

. atid fifty tunes that of Massachusetts ! Mr. 
has said that it would form five States. He 
. 1'ibtcdly meant Texas proper, extending only 
to - hc river Medina, which divides it from Coah 
and not including the portions of that and of three 
other States of Mexico, which the said Congress 
have coolly "annexed" to Texas. Certainly such 
an act is as laughable as it is impudent. Still there 
can be no doubt, that if we once pass the S 
we shall not halt till we reach the Rio Bravo. This 
has always been the limit to which the usurpers, for 
the present, aspired. If we conclude to rob at all' 
we shall not boggle at the trifling question of more 
or less. This vast territory, except a corner in the 
Northwest not large enough for more than one State, 
lies south of thirty-six an, I a half thgrccs of North 
latitude, and according to the law pissed," as part of 
the Missouri compromise, may all be made into 
States. If one side of the compromise was 
slavery should not pasj north of that line, the 
. may march up to it. If through 
. or, pusillanimity, wo shall, 
experience, and present li^h*, pcr- 
Texas to be anr.t •. |1, with still more 

. y, psrmit it to be overrun by slavery. Consi- 
dering "what manner of spirit" it is, which -. 

-.hes, the immense accession of political power, 
the security for continued political ascendency 
b it would acquire ; considering how difficult, 

r the most part vain, we and our .' 
■ 1 it to resist its engrossing- and tyrannical tem- 
tnd pretensions, although in our fathers' 
there were but a quarter as many slaves as new, and 
no cotton at all — I should utterly despair, if Texas 
.c-xed, of ever seeing any barrier erected tithcr 
within, or hcyond. that territory, which the invading 
s'trge would not soon sweep away. 

Mr. "Walker, a member of the Senate from Mis- 
sissippi, has put forth the theory that if Texas is 
acquired, slavery will rlow into it from the exiting 
s, and, passing the ultimate Southwestern 
idary of the Union, will diffuse itself in the 
persons of " free blacks, augmented in the slave 
States," over Mexico, and Central and South Ame- 
rica. He does not suggest any way in which slaves 



e Ci nvrted into freemen in those States. — 
Manumission is prohibited by Is v every 

one of th( m and without i 

States. But if manumission were free, would it be 

i 

f free blai 

so" themselves \ery quick over 
rmitted 
to find its level, and ti:<' Hut one 

riginal, and - of the 

.• xico of her territory, v. 
she could neither be wheedled nor threatened into 
an engagement to surrender fugitive sia\ 
fifteen years our slave masters, masters of this go- 
\ eminent and people, persisted in pressing I 
Mexico this impudent pretension. Her reply wai, 
that " slavery was a palpable violation of the 1". r .-. r 
principles of a free republic." Mr. Benton, who 
started, and recently boasted in the Senate of hav- 
ing str.rted the project of annexation, alleged in the 
beginning, as one reason, the danger of the elope- 
ment of slaves from our Southwestern States into 
Texas, in which, by the laws of Mexico, slavery 
had been abolished. The Southern press shouted a 
fierce assent. A slaveholding republic, they said, 
could net bear the juxtaposition of a republic which 
had abolished slavery. The late Secretary of State, 
Mr Upshur, in his correspondence with our Minister 
at London, urged the same thing as a reason, and 
;:s constituting a necessity, for annexation, 
is the delirium of a- pro slavery brain-fever ; for the 
:; not removed by annexing Texas, r.cr 
can it be without extending the slave States 'o Terra 

ego, to Dutch Cuiana, and Brazil ! I:. 

is no doubt that I of this immode- 

rate ai 

f an indefinite a . :.t of 

the slave power, by boundless conquests in the south- 
west ; and if they can accoi. 
is probab'o that I . will bs realized. 

Wise, in his speech in favor of war with Great Dri- 
in the House oi Ri 

■ ■ry should 
pour itself out without restraint, and find no I 
but the Southern ocean." The late Mr. Gilmer, 
ex-governor of Virginia, and Secretary of the Navv, 
said in his celebrated letter on Annexation, in 1843, 
that " the pioneer from our seaboard would soon 

hie lire on the Gulf of California." Mr. Bu- 
chanan, of Pennsylvania, alluding incidentally to 
Texas, in his speech on Oregon, delivered in the 
Senate in M ihkt t' Providence had 

given us ti of carrying civilization and 

Christianity throughout this continent, and we could 



io noi our career than the torrent baa made peace ar.d war, it has commanded our ar- 

mies ai.d i i regulated or suspended com- 

merce and intercourse with nations; it has ! 



.■ ivea ! 



and expended out mrfnej at pleasure, whether to 



Foment, based on moral con- catch slaves, to pension bloodhounds, to reward sy- 

■rdinj.' to the rcturru of the cophants, or rob [ndiana. A company of Souther:: 

. ile country • law students were lately debating wi\h a friend of 

freedom renders the colored people insane, idiots, mine the Texas question. He observed to them 

deaf arid dumb, blind and paupers to an appalling | tint the aquisition of a vacant territory so extensive 

; and the d reduce the value of real estate throughout 

humanity and dutv require that we should enslave the South, and he asked them how it was tl 



..■:d yet this astonishing statesman 

our consent and cooperation upon the plea thai An- 
nexation will be tbi id, in his judgment, 
the onh : freeing them ! By such 
lame and wretched artifices, the silly knaves seri- 
i alculate to swindle intelligent freemen. Six- 
Walker's pamphlet were ills- United States, and of Texas, there is a thing call- 



view of such a result, they were so desirous of An- 
nexation 1 "Because," they replied, "it will give 
us political power, and with political power, ice will 
take care of our interests. 

******* 

In the pockets of thousands of the citizens of the 



tributed last winter in all quarters "t the country, 
under the franks of Democrats, falsely so called, 
rtuc of this distinguished etfort in the cause of 
human thraldom, he became, by general consent, 
the immediate dictator of the Baltimore Convention. 
At bis nod, Van I \]\ivg down, and Polk 

set i announcement, that George 

.lias had \ r expr ssing 

:.t to 
rithstandiDg 

h ncy ! 

+ «■ * * 

on rc- 

I 

y. It 



cd Texas landscrip. It is a species of title founded 
on qualified grants by Mexico, of immense tracts of 
land, conditioned on the performance of ce: 

g duties, which were never performed, and 
.re the titles are void. The whole specula- 
founded in deceit and fraud, but by a ( 
lion of the Texan marauders and insurgents, 
the land jobbers, who assisted them with arms, mu- 
nitions, men and money from the United States, 
these titles are i good, if Ai 

,vill he worl 
I the scripholders 

' I 

• 1 by his T< 
letter 

riven, 

i :| y ' 

H c re, l 

rize by 

. which rvi i k without r- 



Pitiful and palpable as those schemes of swindling 
are, they are nevertheless formidable. Tens of 
thousands of adventurers in them are dispersed 
throughout the country, and are operating in dis- 
guise. I am informed by Southern Whigs that 
most of the leading friends of Annexation in that 
quarter have tickets in these lotteries.* They are 
active, clamorous, and, of course, unscrupulous — 
They urge the people to go Annexation for the ag- 
grandizement and greater security of our rising Re- 
public. They tell them that it will extend civiliza- 
tion, republican institutions, and Christianity, and 
open a new and profitable market for the products 
of our factories. 

***** 
The insulting appeal to the cupidity of " Eastern 
manufacturers" originated with the late Governor 
and Secretary Gilmer. It was repeated often by the 
late Secretary Upshur, a nullificr, and most elabo- 
rately urged by Walker a free trade man. I have 



for consumers, it would be worth a while to CO 
der whether it would not be wiser to conquer China, 
where there are enough of them to make it an ob- 
ject. Or, if the views of nullifiers to the benefit of 
" Eastern manufacturers," are too moderate for 
this, they might at least make a treaty with Haytt, 
which would, without the expense and hazards of 
war, secure us more customers than there are inhabi- 
tants in Texas. Tiiere is Still another peaceful and 
infallible method of making a market for " Eastern 
manufactures " It is found that the emancipated 
negroes of the British West Indies consume four 
times the quantity of manufactures that they did as 
slaves. If these Southern gentlemen wish to pro- 
vide consumers of " Eastern manufactures," let 
them convert their slaves into freemen. It would 
probably increase the demand for clothing at least 
$50,000,000 per annum ! 

During the last winter I conversed much with the 
ablest and fastest friends of protection in both 



been informed that there are manufacturers and Houses of Congress, and there was not one who 
merchants who are eying this bait, and are prepared 
to jump at it. Is it possible that Northern manu- 



facturers can believe that nullifiers and free-traders 
are going to rob Mexico to enrich theml The ar- 
argument in its best aspect comes to this, that it 
is goed policy to go to war f ;r the capturing of con- 
sumers ! This would be a new ground of war, and 
a new kind of protection, as new as the protectors 
themselves. It is supposed that there are not above 
one hundred thousand inhabitants in T< sas, and 
probably half .of them are slaves. Slaves arc not 
nitted to be large consumers. If we are to fight 

" I former •'<"> for 

, with a view 
ablingthe ;■ the rr.otiveso;' 

Anncjca'ioaists ; 1 i I icullies 

.The : I most of the ! 

ather than 1 
learned to my sa 'isfaction, that the foil , as are or 

were largely Intei i 

i. i ■ <! the 

Navy.' J L I farmer Minis- 

u horol 
.-n which the Texas 'i r. 
be founrle ! . and I w acting 

in Ihi 

Texas Spy in Mexico. Gilbert L. Th 

ler's messenger to Mexico R. J H 

a son i I Tl 

1 : a town in Ti .v- h is be in i at le i in bis li inor Win. 
South < 
honor. Wtn Price, late District Attorney, New-York.— 
and Enquirer, N-w.\ Drk. E J 
Holmes and Jam ' ina" 



did not set it down as certain, that Annexation 
would seal the doom of our Northern industry. 
Many of them, not hitherto friendly to abolition, 
admitted that Abolitionists had detected and ex- 
posed the secret cause of the war which the Southern 
slaveholders, aided by their Northern understrap- 
pers, have waged upon Northern industry through 
the instrumentality of capricious and deleterious 
legislation. If "Eastern manufacturers" and mer- 
chants are deceived by a trick so maladroit, 

• I they be thin the fdt weed, 

That rcta itself in ease on ! 
And if mental imbecility, be, as is alleged, a judi- 
cation for enslaving men, they would deserve to 
receive chains, whips, and tasks, on the plantation 

of a Texan brigand. 
* * 

But it is urged that Annexation will be the means 
dishing Slavery in the old Slaves as fast as it 
will establish it in new ones. What then do we 
. rty and humanity, especially as slaves 
are treated much more cruelly in planting than in 
farming States ! But these men tell us tha 
nexation will build up " Eastern manufactui 
then why not also the Southern .' The anno, 
of Texas would have about the same tendency to 
abolish Slavery in the old slave Slates, that opening 
a new market for wool, and prohibitiog the importa- 
tion of wool and woollens, under penalty of death, 
would have to abolish wool-growing in New-Eng- 
land and New-York 



The editor of the Hampshire Gazette, Korthai 

Mas.-, was i f that county, some 

weeks ago, who expressed himself earnestly in a or o 

Annexation. The editor pressed him lot '11 the ressonoj. 

his advocating a measure so unjust to Mex i o and so dis 

creditable to oui coun'ry, extending and perpeti a iara<i, 

evidently would, the curse of slavery. lie rep ied, "Iwilj I Hence he calls the proposed robbery, nr-annexation 



We are told that Texas was once ours — " a 
own," to use a favorite phrase of Mr. Walker. 



be honest a^out it. I own land in Texas 



and thereupon the " harmonious Democracy" sing 



8 

I 

- 
Tex.: 

. 

in our 

a truth wo never 

i', of 

held tbat pro- 

ceded it to 

red it back in 1800 France never 

I i.cvcr claimed any right to it. 

The proof of this is : 

1. The absence of all record, memorandum, or 
.on of such possession, er claim. 

:'.ive facts, which show that neither the one 
;,e other were ever thought of by France, and 
Spain and Mexico had the original possession, 
and have always maintained it. 

La Salle, in his search by sea for the mouth of 

sippi, wit!i a view of establishing a colony 

there, missed the point of his destination, and reached 

the coast about a hundred miles too far west ; but 

supposing himself to be still east of the Mississippi, 

:stcd westward, until despairing for the time 

of finding the object of his search, he landed and 

■ '. fort merely for protection against Indians at 

Bay of St. Bernard, now '. From 

rgin of 
bay, to the eastward, t\ would 

I 
t out on a 

- ; vers, 
rw v, which 

vet the sain. 

i from 

. whii h an 

■ 
■ at a strong 



sjry detachment to that nation, and took the sur- 

The survivors of the party left in 

meantime had been destroyed 

:iken, and 

:ole conducted as prisoners to the city of M 

1 for a time, and 
where it is 
•\ . The others were 
lie service of the Viceroy. The French 
unt of these proceed- 
ings, although the expedition wag fitted out by it ; 
ii made for the surrender cf the 
is Louis XIV. was not a monarch to sub- 
mit silently to such an indignity as he would have 
deemed this treatment of his subjects and servants, 
and this violation of his territory, hail he' considered 
it his territory. 

The only foundation for the assumption that the 
tcrritury was once ours, is the instructions given by 
Mr. Jefferson to our ministers to Spain and (ireat 
Britain, Monroe, Pinckncy and Bowdoin, who at- 
tempted to negotiate at Paris an adjustment of our 
boundaries with Spain. In a letter to Mr. Bowdoiti 
on the 10th of July, 1806, Mr. Jefferson said : 

" With respect to our western boundary, vour in- 
structions will be your guide. I will only add, as a 
comment to them, that we are attached to the re- 
taining the Bay of St. Bernard, because it was the 
first establishment of the unfortunate La Salle, was 
the cradle of Louisiana, and more incontesiibly 
covered and conveyed to us by France under that 
ny other spot in the coi:. 

In another letter, written September 17, 1S00, 
Mr. Jef 

■■ ' Itbough we considered our title nncd as far as 
i what they [our 
negotiators] coul I 

west w aril, and sticces- 
'•ccd out, of which the Colo- 
the List." 

At t'.iis time, N 

He had got the royal family of Spain into 

his toils, and his will s at the Es- 

curiel as at the Tuilleri.^s. The policy of Mr. Jef- 

□ seems to h ke use of tho as- 

.<v of Napi leon to extort from Sp 

Ti Kas, and if 
d all that ' 

Mr. J< H< iiove 

ir rl urn had any valid I r, we have 

of from himself, 
transmitted by him to C on the- Gth d 

i : — 

" ( lur line t.> the west w ts one which would have 
It- ft us i the Mississi ipi." 



■ ipttire i i y 
c sc- 
I oLlx. p. 17S 



r c related to the settlement of diffi- 
• ■ isting between us and Spain, in relation to 
the boundaries of Louisiana. The i 
specific recommendation, but it was privately dis- 
closed to the Committer to winch it was referred ; 
that the object •■ ipriation of 

John Randolph, Chairman 
of the Committee, waited on Mr. J< fferson on the 
! by him that the i ■ 
wanted i* »r the purchase of Florida. Mr Ran- 
dolph refused to support the proposition, unlc.-s the 
President would say this officially. At the mi 
of the Committee on the next day, December 7th, 
Mr. B/du'cU, of Massachusetts, construe/like message 
into a requisition of money for foreign 
Mr. Randolph moved that the use of the sum pro- 
posed, viz : two millions, be limited to the specific 
object of purchasing Florida, which was agreed to 
in Committee, but the limitation was stricken out 
in the House. The hill was taken up in secret ses- 
sion, and Mr. Farnum of Massachusetts, stated that 
the measure was in conformity with the secret views 
cf the Executive. It was passed in secret, and two 
millions of the people's money submitted to Execu- 
tive discretion. It vas immediately sent to Bona- 
parte, for what purpose, has not been disclosed, and 
will probably never be authentically known. Mr. 
Randolph, theretofore, an ardent friend and sup 
porter of- Jefferson, resisted the whole proceeding, 
and after it was consummated, denounced it in a 
pamphlet to the people. 

Louisiana was never described, either by La Salle, 
when he took possession of it, or by the French 
they possessed it, except as the country wa- 
tered by the Mississippi and its tributaries. This; 
of course does not include Texas, none of its rivers, 
being connected, directly, cr indirectly, wiih the 
Mississippi. It was ceded by France to Spain, re- 
trcceded by Spain to France, and ceded by France 
to the United States, with no description, but that 
of " the province of Louisiana, as previously pos- 
sessed" by the successive grantors. 

The French writers speak of La Salle's journeys 
in Texas as having beer, performed in Mexico !, i 
Sa'.le himself took no formal possession of the Bay 
of St. Bernard. In 1838 Mr. Adams, who knows as 
much about this matter as any man living, declared 
in the House of Representatives, that "this very 
claim (to Texas) was as flimsy a claim as wa, 
set up by one nation against another ,-" and no 
member, rabid as many were for the acquisition, 
ventured to gainsay it. Two years before, he had 
stated in the same place, that Mr. Monroe, who 
negotiated the purchase of Louisiana — who was 
one cf the negotiators in Spain and at Paris in 
1805-G, and who had followed this question of the 



■ 'try line of Louisiana :. : of it 

to the end, declared at the tim" of I 
that "he '.dence in the claim" 

yet because Mr. / to the 

■ isreputable 
custom of Christian diplomacy,) advanced liti- 

ly a claim to I -e, he has been qt) 

as decisive authority in favor of our pretended right, 

tation. This is am 
of the ' impositions attempted to be prac- 

tised ; and speculators upon the peoph-. 

In 1800, a boi! 
bine, and General Wilkinson; Commander-in-Chief 
of U. 8 A was sent by our Government to repel 
them. In the orders, issued by General Dearborn, 
Secretary of War, by " special " direction of Mr. 
Jefferson, Wilkinson was instructed to explain to 
the Governor of Texas, " that the quiet possession 
of the country by the United States, east of the 
Sabine, (with the trifling exception of the place 
called Bayou Pierre,) ought, and will be consider- 
ed as fully within the limits of the country, surren- 
dered to us on taking possession of Natchitoches ; 
and therefore, any attempt of his Catholic Majesty's 
officers to disturb the existing state of things, by 
endeavoring to occupy any new post cast of the Sa- 
bine, must be considered by the Government of the 
United States as an actual invasion of our territori- 
al rights, and will be resisted as such." 

This letter was dated May 6, 180G. General 
Wilkinson marched towards the Sabine, but the 
Spanish having retired to the west bank of the riv- 
er, no collision tor.!; place, and it was immediately 
agreed between him and Herera, Governor of Tex- 
as, that both parties should regard "as dis; 
territory," a strip of land extending about forty 
miles east of the Sabine, i. e. to a conventional 
line up to which the Spanish claimed, and had un- 
doubtedly possessed, for they had an old missionary 
establishment a fev miles west of Natchitoches, 
called Maria Sanlissima dc Guadalupe, founded in 
1715. In that year, four Frenchmen, having passports' 
from the Governor of Louisiana, entered Texas for 
the purpose of baying cattle at the Spanish missions. 
They were immediately sent by the authorities of 
Texas to the city of Mexico, agreeably to the ha- 
bitual policy pursued by the Spanish colonial gov- 
ernment, of excluding all foreigners. It is scarcely 
necessary to say that these passports were evidence 
enough that the French Governor considered the 
men as not about to journey in Louisiana. 

The conventional line run from the Gulf of Mex- 
ico, between the rivers Calcasieu and Mcrmento, 
northwardly a few miles west of Na'chitoches, to 
the Red River. Wilkinson and his aid-de-camp, 
Col. Burling, speak of the territory west of the 



LO 



c, as "undisputed territory of Mexico."' — 
Wilkinson :. his memoirs, that the con- 

vention concluded by iiim and Governor Herein, 
■ v the Spaniards, but little regard 
was pa;d to it by citizens of the United States;" 
and that " subsequent to this incident, sundry ag- 
gressions have been made on the province of Texas 
by our citizens in that quarter, not under the autho- 
rity of the Government, but it is ; returned with 
their connivance." This is the testimony of the 
Commander-in-Chief of our army. 

In the Florida negotiation, the Spanish Plenipo- 
tentiary claimed to the line above described, but 
Mr. Adams ob|ected that this was not a convenient 
boundary, and the Sabine was ultimately adopted 
1U re was a donation of a tract of land large enough 
lor .-e, er.il counties, for the sole purpose of accom- 
modating us with a satisfactory boundary. 

This is the substance of the case, and I now leave 
it to all honest or decent men to treat this re-impo- 
witb the contempt it merits. 

Were there no other objection to the Annexation 

of Texas than the scheme originated in a vile and 

ndous fraud and conspiracy, it would be suffi- 

me. Mr. Ber.ton informed us in his late 

::, that in 1819 he denounced the Florida 

Trc;. and that he then 

uis newspapers in favor 

of its re-.. Tiirrc is nothing in this to 

boast of. It is . in which he 

' sophistry for n< •■ 

to pcr- 

, however, 

it from the 

and by representing to 

• 

ed have to 
i m. — 

'. try- 
I wih li of the 



which have characterized every step in the prepara- 
tion and progress of the revolt. I have so often 
dwelt upon these, particularly in a pamphlet pub- 
lished at Washington, winter before last, entitled, 
" The Texas Kevuluiion," that I will not now go 
over them again. Suffice it to say, that in Februa- 
ry, 1830, an extensive conspiracy was found to ex- 
ist in the United States, with a complete organiza- 
tion, and a cypher for correspondence, the object of 
which was the dismemberment of Mexico, and the 
annexation of a part thereof to the United States ; 
that Sam Houston was the active head, but Gen. 
Jackson, then President of the United States, the 
secret soul of it ; that the conspirators in the United 
States, in Texas, in the Cabinet at Washington, 
and in our Legation at Meqico, acted in concert to 
carry out the design ; that intrigue and corruption 
extending to the offers of bribes to the amount of 
half a million of dollars, were tried in vain ; that 
the definitive failure of all other means of obtaining 
the territory, was the signal for raising the standard 
of revolt ; that Sam Houston went to Texas in 
1830, to prepare for that contingency ; that he give 
out to his friends and confederates that " he was in 
possession of the private views of the President of 
the United States ;" that Houston and his accom- 
plices fomented the insurrectionary spirit, caused in 
i certain portion of the T< sians by the laws of Mex- 
ico, prohibiting the introduction of slaves, and 

29, abolishing slavery ; 
the American emigrants to Texas were treated 

irdinary hospitality and generosity by the 

[t were false 
- 
of Texas, but conspirators arid intruders from 
r< volution ; I 
on th. ray of those setl 

ised it as far as I 
without dai 

the 
if i.a- 

i 
, to her, W 

i Texas I 

w of nations, and of 
were made, 6j - 
. afterwards by Presidenl 

IJjreii to get up . 0, to cover under 



11 



the less odious name of conquest, the original and 
long standing project of obtaining more .slave terri- 
tory ; and finally that the slaveholders, (he Locofo- 
coes, and John Tyler, have labored to excite the 
West on the subject of Oregon, and the whole 
country on the subject of the British claim of visi- 
tation for the detection of slave-trading pirates, 
with the intent to get the United States into a war 
with Great Britain and Mexico, chiefly for the pur- 
pose of consummating the grand conspiracy for 
ohtaining Texas, and extending and perpetuating 
Slavery. 

Now, therefore, if Slavery could be laid out of 
the question, I for one would oppose Annexation to 
my last breath. Eternal justice, the violated laws 
of hospitality, the discouragement of ingratitude 
and fraud, the moral sentiment, and the universal 
interests of mankind demand that this hideous mass 
of crime should be suppressed, and a world nui- 
sance abated. All this will speedily be done, un- 
less the criminals are protected with the broad 
shield, and taken to the bosom of this Republic; 
which may God of his infinite mercy forever avert. 
* * * * 

For fifteen years I have striven according to my 
humble means, at home and abroad, in public and 
in private, by speech and by press, to expose and 
defeat these frightful and stupendous machinations. 
And now, when a great and honorable, and I trust 
invincible party, with a statesman of unimpeacha- 
ble integrity, unsurpassed ability, arid powerful 
character at their head, have come up to the same 
work, :s it my abolition brethren who require me to 
turn from our enemy, and fight our auxiliaries ! 

My position or my principles are not changed. — 
The change is in others, not in me, and it is for 
them to justify the aid they are indirectly lending 
to a party, the most deadly and insidious in its hos- 
tility to justice, liberty, philanthropy, peace, and 
progress. 

The Wh'gs, in my opinion, are the only 
and true Democrats. For ten years and upwards 
have acted, though not as often and thorough- 
ly as they ought, and as I wished, yet they have 
acted repeatedly and powerfully in defence ofhu- 

: rights, and more especially for the cons 
tknofthe groat constitutional instrumentalities, the 
right of petition, the freedom of the press, of speech 
and debate, by which alone we assert those rights, 
and by which alone they can be peaceably, patriot- 
ically, or successfully asserted. The Whig party 
is composed of men, more intelligent as a general 
thing, more independent, disinterested, and humane 
than their opponents. They have shown, that as a 
party, they can neither be moved by the violence 
■nor seduced by the corruption of Slavery. The 



very first act they performed on their accession I 
power in 1811, was a sacrifice to principle unpar- 
alleled in the history of party contests. — I mean the 
rescission of the gag-rule. I have regarded that 
act as the principal cause of their overthrow.* 
Had thev shown the same subserviency to slave- 
holding tyranny interest, and ambition, as the Loco- 
focos have ever done, had they for the sake of Fed- 
eral offices, honors and emoluments re-enacted 
that rule, end yielded up all the important commit- 
tees to that habitual jealousy and arrogance, which 
Locofocos have done nothing but fawn upon and 
confirm — they would have been in power now ; and 
they, instead of Democrats, falsely so called, would 
have had the offices and would have become, like 
them, the base deceivers, or the contemptible fooU 
of Tyler. And I look upon it as a cheering evi- 
dence, not only of the progress of our cause, but 
also of the prevailing moral soundness of the Ame- 
rican people, tint a party which lost power BO 
tuously and nobly, is about to recover it with inter- 
est. 

And now, friend Fulton, what shall we say of the 
other side. I would rejoice, and regard it as t:.c 
greatest kindness, if you would show me how I can 
vote for any one but Henry Clay, or how I can omit 
voting, without helping Polk and Slavery. For 
many years I have refused to vote at all, unless the 
political parties put up men who would do . 
Slavery work ; and then I have voted indiscr 
nately for Whigs or Locos. I did so upon t;ie 
ground that Slavery is such a master principle of in- 
justice, corruption, and ruin, in the administration 
of the Government, — so pervades, colors and 
trols every important measure, appointment and de- 
nent, that I have come at last to believe that 
an cilice-bearer, who is prepared for Anti-Slavery 
work, can do but little harm, and one who is not so 
prepared, but little good, whatever he mi 

is now, or likely to be, agitated 
among us. In the present Congress, and in the 
he few Locos favorable to abolii 

nost important question 
ting with the Wh 

The Locofoco party, containing, I cheerfully ad- 
mit, individuals • .ud upon principles, 

and with an indepsndence which does 
-t honor, is, nevertheless, profligate 
igress and the State L 
they hav, bt rights, and 

cardinal principles of their* pretended ci 
to retain power, and get office, by supporting tho 
.icnts, and the destructive and 
degrading demands of Slavery. They have plumed 



'Sie Wise's letter to the Gilmer dinnerparty, Vi ginial8tl. 



i a 



regard to the right of i 
■ constantly clai 

i hange 
'!es to 
■ Con- 
■ 
are men,1 

d Tie in good 

. and upon 
c and deliberate instructions of to 

- this ! 
not willing to sacrifice 
_■ for Texas and Slavery, and Polk was. — 
Texas and ve become the Shibboleth of 

irty. General Jackson, the old soul of the 
Texas conspiracy, well and long known as a slave- 
is the father of the Locofoco nomination 
for President. Hence the candidate is called 
tang Hickory " Jackson's arm struck down "his 
fr.end," Van Burcn. This is demonstrable. It is 
true that he wrote a letter to the Convention in 
favor of Van Buren. But it appears by a subse- 
quent letter, that he had previously determined that 
Van Buren could not be nominated. He says that 
he made up his mind " with great regret, that the 
position of his friend on the Texas question, render- 
ed his nomination impossible." Jackson's wish was 
father to his thought. Mr. B. F. Butler, Mr. Van 
Buren's Jul us Achates, did not communicate Jack- 
'a letter in favor of his " friend," until then. 'ru- 
ination was made, the instructions of the area* dem- 
rty, set at nought, and Mr. Van Buren's 
.: forever ! Tli'jn Mr. Butler pro. 
ed the letter. Now lot it be borne in mind that 
■ • 

letter, was in con 
with Jackson many days, and camo fresh from 

I earing 
thheld from those to whom it 
• mid he have dared to ■ : 

zed, ami the whole ma- 
een him and 

thelet- 

i used 

taken, 

naulted !' 

'land, :md Ohio ; and to rc- 

.: in '. • ; di : i trii j« ol I bal ignorant, 

.'■i.i to 'perdition, 

. a he 

ir icy. 
• » * 

biethi 



»!.:vc holder, under any circumstances, is to be 

■ •it to the cause. I do not mean to be 
rca:; 1 ise of the slave. [ glor in it, 

and v. "for Rothschild's wealth or 

fa fame," the satisfaction I derive from 
serving it. 

I do not know an Abolition 
support a man for the presidency, mci -e he 

tent to 
oppose one merely because he is a slaveholder ! — 
The reason is as superficial in one case as the oth- 
er. The first and most important question in both 
is what is the candidate capable of doin;r, 
if elected, will he do, for the cause 1 We vote not 
for nam* b, but for things, for systems, for the known 
and scttlnd policy of a party. Mr. Clay, could not, 
even if so disposed, refuse to carry out the distinc- 
tive principles of the Whig party. For example 
he could not without meanness and perfidy of which 
I believe him incapable, interpose the executive in- 
fluence as Tyler did, to reprieve the infamous " 21st 
Rule," should the Whigs, as they assuredly will, 
on the first Monday of December, 18-15, demand its 
death The maintenance of the right of petition, 
the freedom of speech and of the press, and opposi- 
tion to Texas, are, and have long been as much 
Whig tenets as the tariff Let us recur to some of 
the facts. In the vear 183G, on Pinekney's resolu- 
tion that our petitions should be " neither printed 
nor referred, but laid on the table without further 
action," 62 Nonhero Democrats, 1 Northern V 

members voted in itive ; 

and 13 Northern Whigs, 17 Northi 
and 6 Southern members voted in I ve. — 

ii v in favor of thi ".'. of 

the Northern Dam 
lution, been given against it, it woul 

! . and ttie country saved from the tyranny, the 

(iisgr • evil examph series' 

of outrages, commit .. the first 

principles of liberty, and the fundi' :s of 

the people. In Ja ion of 

of Kentu . iey resold- 

N irthern Whigs, 

and 56 Southern . :i of 

d in the affirm itive ; and 42 Northern 

I 11 Northern Democrat hern 

3 Southern I '• 'ed in the 

negative [n December 1 S.J7, in consequence 

of a motion and speech of Mi Slade, a leading 

, in favor i of slavery in the 

District of ( 'olutnbi i, P ■ . that our 

d all other papers touching the abolition 

rery, or the I . hould be, 

.: the table, " without being debated, printed, 
tcad or referred," was brought in. On this resolu- 



13 



tion,.')I Northern D< Northern VI 

70 Southern members, vut. d in the affirmative ; 
;uid 59 Northern Whige, and 15 Northern Demo- 
crats in the Negative. This w:is the firai qag law, 

oot only suppressed the right of petition i 
part oi the people, but also the right of their repre- 
sentatives to make a motion, or utter a word in the 
House. Of the Northern men who o;>enod their 
mouths to take the gag, 41 were Democrats, and 1 



it. This rule has been regularly renewed . 
i scept when the Whigs were in 
with rani unbroken. At the opening of the 

ton of a Whig Cong i •, Mr Adams moved 
to rescii; I moti in as a nccen- 

inch of Whig policy in opposition to I 
and lettn ofth< party just then dis- 

carded hv the nation. From this doctrine not a 
Whig ei In favor of the motion 



Whig. All the Southern members, 70 in number, ] there were Northern Whigs 78, Northern Di 



united to put it in and hind it on. Of those who 
made resistance, 59 were Northern Whigs and 15 



crats 30, Southern Whigs 4 ; against it, Northern 
Democrats 21, Northern Whigs 1, and Southern 



Northern Democrats. Majority for the resolution, members 82 On motion of a Democrat from Penr. 



48. Of course, less than half the Northern 
Democrats who voted for it, could have defeated it. 

On the 12th day of December, 1838, the same 
resolution was moved by At her I on, of New Hamp- 
shire, with the addition of an insiduous phrase, viz : 
" Upon presentation thereof" which created a doubt 
whether petitions were in reality received under this 
resolution. Thus with stealthy step, cow.-irdice and 
conscious guilt advanced to the open outrage of the 
following session. That tho manner of proceeding 
might be in keeping with the object, the mover 
made a lengthy speech, arid closed by moving the 
previous question, which his accomplices sustained, 
wisely precluding reply. The vote stood for the 
resolution, Northern Democrats 55, Northern Whigs 
1, Southern members, without distinction of party, 
72 ; against the resolution, Northern Whigs 62, 
Northern Democrats 12, Southern Whigs 3, South 
em Democrats 1. 

The preceeding resolutions being simple orders 
of the House, were subject to the will of the major- 
ity, if they should see tit at any time to refer a peti- 
tion, but the slaveholders, encouraged by these re- 
peated proofs, that their Northern mercenaries fear- 
ed neither God nor their constituents, proceeded to 
give the mortal stroke to the freedom of debate and 
the right of petition. On the 28th day of January, 
1840, the House voted to add to its standing rules 
and orders, (which cannot be dispensed with or re- 
scinded during the session without a majority of two- 
thirds,) the following, viz : — 

" No petition, memorial, or other paper, praying 
for the abolition of slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, or any State or territory, or the slave-trade be- 
tween the States or territories of the United States, 
in which it now exists, shall be received by the 
House, or entertained in any way whatever." 

As usual, the previous question was called and 
free breath stifled. There were in favor of this in- 
famous rule, Northern Democrats 27, Northern 
"Whigs 1 , Southern members 84 ; and against it, 
Northern Whigs 64, Northern Democrats 38, 
Southern Whigs 4, majority 6 ; wanting only three 



of the Northern Democratic votes to have defeated pause before declaring the decision of the House 



sylvania, this vote was subsequently reconsidered 
and the gag restored by a majority of 2. At the 
beginning of every session since, Mr. Adams, un- 
faltering and untiring in the dinchargc of his duty, 
and as confessedly the leader of the Whigs in the 
House of Representatives, as he is of tho = e flu 
ble to abolition, has repeated his motion, for the rc- 
cision of the gag rule. At the regular session of 
1811-2, the rule was sustained by a vote of 96 to 
S8 ; majority 8. In the session of 1842-3 it was 
sustained by 106 to 102 ; majority 4. In these 
cases the d • just about the same as in the 

preceding. I have not at hand the means of an ac- 
curate analysis, but the Washington letters of those 
periods, represent the Northern Democrats to have 
gone, as a party, with the slaveholders for the 
nd the Whigs, almost to a man, against it. 
the! • after the gag rule had been stricken 

out by a majority cf 20, its friends avoided the ef- 
fect of that vote by refusing to adopt the rules as 
amended ; and a previous motion hiving been 
adopted that the rules of the preceding session be 
observed until otherwise ordered, the 21st, now ti.e 
25th Rule, was thus left in full force. This is ti.e 
last vote which has been taken annulling the : 
of petition, and the liberty of speech, and debate. — 
There were for it, Northern Democrats 2"), Northern 
Wings 0, Southern members, without distinction of 
party 62 ; against, it, Northern Whigs 44. Northern 
Democrats 38, and Southern Whigs 5 ; majority for 
the gag, 1. 

The Northern Democratic vote ajjainst the gag, 
which on the preceding evening was 55, had been 
reduced during the night no less than 17 ! Of these. 
8 were absent or dodged, as it is called, and 9 
changed their votes. No Whig changed his vote, 
and there was but one, Hardin of Illinois, absent. — 
Duncan, of Ohio, and Davis, of Indiana, had 
made speeches against the rule, and on the fina! 
question voted against it ; but when they found 
a majority had voted the same way, and 
slave-driving Virginia speaker was making an ■. 



14 



rose and changed I - is a com- 

: members, capable 

irting to it, with a ■ ' ncour- 

agement which such a practice offers to bribery is 

tbl il had \«.c>: arranged duringtho 

preceding night, that th should 

and force it into the 

mouths of the Whiga ; bat wishing to do this with 

,1 tear of conscience, and as little 

. they doled 

t , ut ; ring manner. I have no 

doubt that if ten or twenty more Democratic votes 

.-.anting, they would have been forthcoih- 

■. characteristic of the party, which two 

the afterwards nominated Polk and Dallas, in 

obedience to the mandate of the same slave inas- 

. desertion of him, whom their constitu- 

in 17 States had determined upon argument, 

to prefer ! One of the considerations which the 

holders urged most strenuously upon their 

Hies, was that bereaving them of their 

was part and parcel of the Whig policy, that 

Adams was the V c of the House, that he 

fought this rule, and that to yield in a 

: to which such notoriety and importance had 

been given, would be nothing less than to manufac* 

it triumph for him and the Whigs, which 

could not fail to affect the ensuing election. This 

argument I have reason to think, prevailed in some 

..ere every other'had failed. 

The cases which I have thus cited give a very 

narrow and imperfect view of the action of the Whig 

ns bearing on Slavery. If we will examine, 

■ at every point a steady 

n to the tyranny, the encroach- 

ol Slavery. 

generally known that the territory of Florida 

!orcd seamen,, r I 

n amity with the 

irrestedand 

. if not taken 

certain day, then 

■ i slavery f ars. — 

.! to liberty. 
..acted by tho same law. On the 

Lhe Commit- 
diencyofan- 
lg uid law. Mi 

tbl motion on the table, 

..Kcussion. 

Th* TOtfl Stood motion, Northern 

i lorthern Whigs 3, Southern mem- 

: party, TO , against it. 

Northern Democrat;', LS.— 

kudacioaa act was 



made by Mr. Briggs, now the Whig Governor of 
Massai husetts, but with a similar result. 

the petition of a large number of the citizens 
/', Chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Commerce, made from that committee a re- 
port again6t all laws of S»ulh Carolina, Geo. 

.:i, and Louisiana, authorizing the confine- 
whipping, and sale of colored seamen from 
the free States, who may enter the ports of the 
United States, lying within the geographical limits 
of those Stall s. Five thousand extra copies of this 
report were ordered to be printed for general distri- 
bution. This is a matter of course in every case of 
an elaborate report on a subject of general interest. 
But it was soon discovered by the slaveholding fana- 
tics, that there were reasons given in this report 
which it ininht be dangerous to publish. A motion 
was therefore brought forward at the next meeting 
of the House, to reconsider the vote to print extra 
copies. It might have been expected, (by one not 
acquainted with them,) that the " peculiar" friends 
of "the poor," of" State right?," "sailor's rights," 
"free-trade," and "the diffusion of information 
among the people," would have promptly frowned 
upon a movement so opposed to all these pr* 
sions, and so depreciating to the Democratic stock 
in trade. Not at all ; 36 Northern Deroocrr 

rn Whigs, -and 71 Southern members, with- 
out distinction of party, voted for the rcconsidcra- 
hem Whigs, 8 Northern Demo- 
crats, and six Southern Whigs against it. The mo- 
tion to print was then laid on the table by a similar 
vote. But Mr. Rayner, an able man fi 
Carolin ide a minority report, he being tho 

only dissenting member of the Committee 1 and it 
was concluded by the Southern members, to be 

.hole to print Mr. R' id of 

course, the extras. And now, this being signified, 
and a motion made to that effect, these 36 Norl 
Democrats faced I 

y for the extra copies ! 
On the fir^t of January, 1843, Mr. Slade, now 
r ( rovernor ol 

ntatives a series 
f rC s. e Christian Blare-trade, car- 

ried v of our Capitol ; and ho asked a 

.ion from the gig, in order to move them — 

; there were Northern 

them Democrats 12; against it, 

rn Democrats, 38, Northern Tyler men, 1, 

Northern Whigs 2. Southern members without 

distinction of party, 78. 

In Octobi r, 1842, Monterey, the Capital of Cali- 
fornia, included within an immense territory, as 
large as Texas, which our Government has long 
been endeaviring to buy, was taken possession of 



15 



by a United States Squadron, under Commodore 
Jones. I have no doubt that this was done in ;>ur- 
ace of secret, as it was in conformity with the 
spirit of public orders of Tyler and Upshur, the 
latter being then Secretary of the Navy. One proof 
of this is, that Jones b i en brought to trial 

or an inquiry. I predicted this, as you may see in 
the pamphlet to which I have referred, from the 
moment that the extraordinary outrage was an- 
nounced. I believed it to be a phenomenon, throw- 
ing out a little light from a dark and awful sys- 
tem of gradual usurpation by means of a little force 
and a great deal of diplomacy, Bolely for the ag- 
grandizement of the slave power, and the slave in 
tercst in this republic. The active brain of the late 
Secretary of State had conceived, and his unbundl- 
ing hardihood and ambition prepared to execute it. 
It will be remembered that the invasions and de- 
predations committed by General Jackson in Flori- 
da, whether they were avowed or disavowed by our 
Government, did greatly facilitate the negotiation 
for the surrender of that province. Mr. Adams 
moved a resolution condemning the Monterey out- 
rage, the most base and unprovoked of its kind. — 
For this resolution there were Northern Whigs 58, 
Southern Whigs 16; and against it, Northern De- 
mocrats 34, Northern Tyler men 1, Northern Whig9 
1, Southern Members, chiefly Democrats 44. Such 
a vote as this, and other circumstances incline me 
to rely on Southern Whig Slaveholders for patriot- 
ism, and respect for the rights of men and of na- 
tions, much more than upon Northern servile Demo- 
crats. 

The effect of slave labor to kill land, and the 
consequent impatieflce of a large portion e>f the 
South to possess themselves i f the rich reservations 
of the Indians, were at the bottom of the perfidious 
and expensive scheme of banishing those original 
and rightful proprietors. The Whigs always op- 
posed this dishonest and cruel policy ; and they op- 
posed the Florida war, a branch of it. 

In 1836, Calhoun, pursuing the reccommendation 
contained in the annual message of President Jack- 
son, brought into the Senate a bill to establish a 
censorship upon newspaper and other printed mat- 
ter, circulated through the Post-Office. The bill 
proposed to make every petty postmaster a censor, 
to invest him with authority to establish his 
ccpurgatoricus, and to circulate or suppress at his 
pleasure, any publication. It made him the sole 
judge, in secret inquisition, of what he should sup- 
press, and what ho should permit to go to the peo- 
ple. For this bill, 16 Democrats and two Whigs 
gave their yeas, and against it, 9 Whigs and 9 De- 
mocrats their nays. There was a tie, and Mr. Cal- 
houn called aloud, " Where is the Vice President," [ 



[Mr. Van Buren ] He was on hand, and 

d iately ri chair, and gave his casting vote 

for the hill ; but it was finally defeated, chiefly by 
the Whigs.* 

On th( aary, 1837, the question of 

plion of Anti-Slavery petition"! was first 

Lose pe- 
titions having been presented, the motion was made 
that they be received, win n upon Mr. Hubbard, of 
New Hampshire, moved that this motion lie on the 
table, [n favor of this, there were Southern De- 
mocrats 20, Southern Whigs ~>, Northern I > 
crats 7 ; against it, Northern Whigs 9, Northern 
Democrats 5, Southern Whigs [Henry Clay] 1. I 
have referred to this vote, because it was the firtt 
of the kind, and not because it is most favorable to 
the character of Whigs. They have given many 
better votes on the same question. On the 8th of 
February, 1839, Mr. Clay of Alabama, moved to 
lay the question of considering Morris's resolution 
against Slavery and the Slave-trade, on the table. 
For this there were Democrats 20, Whigs 2 ; a- 
gainst it, Whigs 10; including Clay, of Kentucky, 
and Democrats 5. 

In February, 1839, and again in January, 1840, 
the Whig Senators, with Mr. Clay at their head, 
voted against the armed occupation of Florida, and 
they resisted every attempt of Jackson and Van 
Buren's administrations, to- involve us in a war with 
Mexico, ostensibly for a bundle of claims, mostly 
trumped up, but in reality to cover robbery with trio 
;'iie of conquest. This was a shadow of 
the Texas treaty, cast ..toss the path of the Whi 
Senators ; and they bebaved precisely as we should 
wish them to do, if we could now dictate in pre- 
sence of the event, the manner of pr 
I think that the Whigs did at that time save us from 
war, a war hiving no real object but the extension 
and security of Slavery ; ai 1 lh it they again saved 
mely conclusion of the Ashburton Trea- 
ty. There is no doubt that the A i saw 
with regret and chagrin the healing of a wound, 
which they wished to keep open, both as incre 
the chances of war, and as furnishing means of irri- 
tating the North at any moment into a blind con- 
currence in their wicked and deep-laid scheme of 
slave aggrandizement. I am persuaded that if that 
Treaty had not been made and ral le Tyler 
thought it still politic to keep measure with the 



" The i. Ilowing was the vole on the passage oi" ihe bill to 
grossed. \\ lips. 1 alii 

Yeas — Black, Brown. Buchanan, Calhoun, Cuthberf, 
trough, Grundy, King, Ala EClog,Qa • o i v 
J'nston, Kives, Robinson, Tallmadge, Walker, v. 
Wright 

tixts — Benton, Cay. Darts, Ewing, III. Etting, Ohio, 
Hendricks, Hubbard. if ■• Niies,Morn ,JP i Ku| 

Shepiey, Southard, Sv 'ft, '/' ■•. inson, Wall, Webster. 

On the fiaal question. Mr. jA, returned to his 

Whig friend;, an'.l voted against the bill. 



16 



and we 
lid most likely h»ve been in the midst of 
.■ Britain and Mi • moment. 

• 14th ••! J 
:it before th 
ith Carolina, (a man who 

i.is party,) in the shape of a resolution for the rc-an- 
;is. To keep properly before us 
the affinities of import ifiheTexa 

observe here that this individual threatened in the 
Senate, to hang, i!i spue of all the Govcn 

in earth, including the Federal, every Abo'uion- 
i>i who set his toot in .South Carolina ; and that he 
boasted of the Compromise Act as the work of " the 
3 ithem whip." Mr. Preston's resolution was laid 
on the table, 34 to 15, Clay, Webster, and all the 
Whigs, except 2, voting in the affirmative ; and 12 

aocrate, including lienton Calhoun and VI 
in the negative. The Whig party also voted a- 
gainst the recognition of the independence of Texas, 
on the 13 L h of February, 1837, and on tne 1st and 
2nd of March, following. On the latter day, the 
motion was toreeonsider the vote of recog 
sed on the preceding. Upon this, thi 
ate -. v divided : and if the Vice Pre- 

. been as ready to interpose his ci 
vote against this Texas conspiracy, as against the 
liberty of the press, we should have been saved 
| from the disgrace of a measure which experience 
has shown to have been unjustifiable in ever , 
But while these things were transpirin 
•'e, one of the most remarkable and well-sus- 
Miamentary contests that can be fou 
recoi tig on in me House oi Repn 

tives. During three years, a system ol 
petitions, motions, and calls on tho Executive for 
information relating to Texas had been in practice. 

ices of five Northern VI 
tures, viz ; those of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode 
ind Ohio and Michigan, together with the peti- 
tion- .s'.rances of more than a hundred 
thousand citizens, against Annexation, had been 
laid on the table without reading, printing, or de- 
al deep as the dungeons of the In- 
ition, enveloped I — a. id 
while ;e yell of war burst upon Mexico 
ntial mansion, b *d by 
• - of both Houses, nothing was 
allowed to be drawn from the I. r said 
..-, or printed, which could throw any light 
on tl ended war. In this de- 
plorable and perilous state of our publi 
ray of tight 

■i liejhl 
■ :i, like that 
1 .• ' ' ■ i ■ 



and South Caroli . I resolutions in favor of 

I, and directed them to be laid before both 
Hou« were presented, but 

were I . like the rest, under ^ 

which, like Phi! iris' bull, was now found as 
to the inventor, as to his victims. Tins unforeseen 
consequences operated like an electric stroke upon 
the slave fanatics of the House. The idea of sup- 
pressing the voice : i States began to ap- 
pe ir eh '■ '■• rable to the " Slate Rig 
and " Strict Construction" party ! 

•■ This even handed justice 
Com' ' med chalice 

'j'. i our own 

Never was this saying of nature's great interpreter 
more curiously verified. The annexationists now 
dema r i rence of their resolutions, and the 

result was that those of Massachusetts and other 
hoc States, and all the petitions and remonstrances 
against Annex it ion, having got at last into respec*,- 
able company, were permitted under its wing to be 
ushered into the presence of the Committee on Fo- 
reign Affairs. The Committee, however, did not, 
if their own statement is true, deign to look at one 
of them, but reported " mmittee he d;s- 

■d from the fur!h:r consideration of then., 
that they be laid on the table." Mr Waddy Thomp- 
son moved to recommit, with instructions " to re- 
port a joint resolution directing the 1'. 

ie proper steps for the- Annex it ion of Texas to 

To this, Mr. Adam? moved an amendment, de- 

ig th it there wa9 no p m r ui 
tion to annex a foreign State ; and that any act of 
Congress or Treaty attempting to annex Texas to 
the I i ■ -. would be null and void, 

ought to be resisted and annulled by the people. — 
And now Mr. Adams had the floor, and never was 
floor better occupied than was this by him, during 
"the morning hour" from the 16th of June to the 
7th of July. He laid open the awful and tremen- 
dous slave-trading, and land speculating conspiracy. 
He has won ample and immortal honors in over- 
throwing, in 1837 and 1810, formidable combina- 
to txpcl him from the House or degrade him 
in it ; but the historian will probably d we'll 

i nthusiasm upon his timely and masterly ex- 
posure of the Texas conspiracy in spue i fall, in the 
midst - of thi majority to hold the gag 

in his mouth. Then was the real battle uncoi 
ously fought. It i.-' not !■'■' mi mi to Bay, that if an 
exposure of the plot had not been made then, it 
would have succeed, d n >w. < In all these occasions 
Mr. Adams was backed by the body of tb '• 
party. So dared to 

Ion the principle's propounded by Calhoun 

the caso of the 



17 



Without this support, tl I and 

intreo.. servants of the people would, in ail | i 
bjlity, have been overpowered and crushed, and am- 

bitioi), <v.ar:ee and fraud — shrouded in impenetrable 
E jy — would have corqpletcd 'he work ilicv hid 
prosperously begun Just before this Dr. Chan- 
nin"' had addressed hi3 letter to Mr. Clay on the 
subject of Annexation ; and I well remember what 
confidence and satisfaction were diffused through- 
out the anti-slavery ranks by the reported reply of 
Mr. C!av, viz : that Dr. Charming need be under no 
• hansiOD thai Texas would be annexed. The 
relief which many an anxious bosom experienced 
from tha: declaration is still recollected by Aboli 
tionists ; and that recollection speaks trumpet- 
tonguee t:" the high ai.d well known trustiness and 

honor of Henry Clay. 

* * * * * 

I hone you will weigh weil the votes I have stat- 
ed and the facts to which I have referred ; and that 
you will carry the investigation still farther, for 
there is plenty of room. Hundreds of such votes, 
given by the respective parties in Congress and in 
State legislatures, affecting deeply the success of 
our sacred cause, and serving in their time as steps 
by which we mounted towards our present secure 
eminence, arc now indistinctly remembered or en- 
tirely forgotten. The few I have cited are enough 
to show the intrinsic character and natural bias of 
the parties. When they were given and placed up- 
on record, there was not much for a politician to 
hope or fear from Abolitionists. Men felt free, and 
rather more than free to act towards us just as they 
felt. It was deemed a merit to treat us with con- 
tumely, and political capital could be thps made. 

i see, therefore, in these votes proof that the 
Wnig party are possessed of humanity, indepen- 
dence, considerateness, habitual reverence for natu- 
ral and Constitutional rights, for justice, and the 
free working of the human soul. They cannot be 
driven by Executive power or popular frenzy, nor 
seduced by the plaudits oi the many, nor the bland- 
ishments of the few, to do essential wrong to 
country, their constituents, or to other nations. — 
The misfortune of their opponents is to have n 
racter except wl n, and 

opportunity may impress upon them for the tune. — 
I shouid feel tha . which they 

could assail with applause, profit and impunity, 
i be any where safe. Constitutional barriers 
have been no more heeded by them than twigs in 
the way of the wiLd boar. They take their name 
from derfius as the Jesuits did from Jesus, and they 
hold (if to anything) to the fundamental maxim of 

nee formidable society, " the end saw 
the means." T incd their 



— -"All's fair in politics," "The spoils of the 
victor.i." These are tho alpb. 
political ethics and their political economy. One of 

Ives to whom they have always given a high 
character foi hone ;acity, uttered I he m >. 

memo i, when ha said "their 

only cement is the cohesive power of public plun- 
der." 

Strict limitations and a jealous watchfulness 
Executive power is a democratic principle ; and lha 
apprehension that the Federal Constitution had pro- 
vided for an Executive, which would be too strong, 
and in processs of time become dangerous to liberty, 
was one of the great grounds of opposition by the 
anti-Federal, or original Democratic party, to tha 
formation and ratification of this Constitution. Bo'- 
for the last sixteen years, to go no further back, the 
Democrats, falsely so called, have sustained and en- 
couraged Executive acts, experiments, and adven- 
tures, far transcending the Constitution, and scorn- 
ing its obvious and cautious restrictions. 

Strict economy and accountability in the use of 
the people's money is a democratic principle, but 
Jackson and Van Iiuren's administrations run up the 
Government expenditure from thirteen to thirty- 
three millions per annum ; and the accounts and. 
superintendence of the national finances were so 
loose and negligent that a single officer carried 0:1 
embezzlements during seven or eight years to the 
amount of more than a million of dollars without 
detection, and with impunity. 

Non-interference of federal officers in election- s 
a democratic principle. I remember when the De- 
mocrats of Boston considered that it would u»3 
them up to have a custom house officer take 
part in their popular meetings and elections, excep". 
to listen of an evening and deposite his vote. 
U is common in all the principal cities for Executive 
dependents to be the officers and orators, and some- 
times to constitute the main uod even entire 
of a pol ■•■ even left I 

post;, day and night, a 

suiting it with 

The protection and encouragement of home 1 
ufactures is an old democratic prin pi . B 
. . 

• join an ass 
tion, formed by my elder pol 
encoui i ldustry. Y\ e I 

to wear no 
ufaclure. This was in ISIS. Wc con 

. dge, until, by th 
134, " the Ami rican systi 

The observance of justice and ncutra'. 
:e of "peace, 



IS 



■ rith all in old democratic doc- 

. which used to be blazoned on our banners ; 
Ahcn, in 1806, an expedition " was set on foot" 
and "pwpared" in the I'nited States, to attack 
Texas, Mr. Jefferson ordered military detachments 
:o take positions on the Ohio and Mississippi, and 
. destroy or capture the boats and men descend- 
rivers for that purpose. Under the late 
.• democratic dynasties, such expeditions 
proceed* d openly, and not only without moles- 
n, but with the aid of officers of Government, 
whose sworn duty it was to prosecute such offend- 
i r> to condign punishment. At this moment a self- 
constituted committee sits in the Capitol, and sends 
forth under the franking privilege, and through the 
organs of the Democratic party, invitations and ar- 
guments to the idle, and lawless, and rapacious, all 
the country, to combine, arm, organize, (either 
as soldiers or emigrants, it makes no difference 
which, not at all !) and march, rob, and murder a 
idly ai;d unoffending people, with whom we 
solemn, and on their part, unbroken treaties of 
limits, peace, friendship, and commerce. The 
worst thing about it is that this great and dangerous 
misdemeanor, for which our laws have provided the 
shment of fine, and imprisonment for years, i. e. 
for the mere " setting on foot" or " preparing"' such 
an expedition, has grown so common and customa- 
ry, that the country has come to regard it with a 
callous indifference. If, as the sequel of these harm- 
•-, privateers unloosed from every 
port, and manned by villains of all nations, and es- 
.'.Iv Texans and Americana, shall sweep our 
commerce from the ocean, we shall remember with 
r and unavailing regret, the apathy with which 
we are looking upon the daring and criminal mani- 
festoes issued by 11. J. Walker, W. W. Payne, and 
the editors of thi lie. 

It is a dcm< i pie that office be , 

■ rthv . but they have come to be gene- 
rally ; on inferior and had men, and 

! as a reason for not removing 
• detected in public rubbery, that 
ssors would probably be equally unprincipled, 
tngry. 

• • principle that Executive offices, 
I judicial and departmental, ought 
rred upon tbi 

.. in only, Jai kson a;>- 
to offices, many 

v. than all 1 

lion, and the diffusion of information 

iii ;i: .cracy. 
I'shavcga. . resentatives 



of the people, have attempted to impose a censor- 
ship upon the press for the comfort and security of 
Slavery, and have voted in innumerable cases 
against printinj.' for dissemination among the people, 
memorials, resolutions, and remonstrances of sove- 
reign States, and reports, and diplomatic corres- 
pondence, which would have informed the people of 
corrupt and high-handed acts done and designed to 
be done in their abused name. The right of peti- 
tion has been openly trampled down and ground un- 
der the heel for ten years, and the national organ of 
the party, (the Democratic Review,) has propound- 
ed and maintained, without dissent on the part of a 
single Democratic press, that : — 

" The absence of such power [Constitutional 
power to grant the prayer of a petition] is not ne- 
cessary to confer the right of a refusal to receive. — 
A settled /'rr i wlgcincnt or predetermination on the 
part «f the dodi/ under its high responsibility to con- 
■nl hi public opinion, is sufficient." 

This is the power of the Cwsars, and of the Nor- 
man conquerers, " Sic void, sic jcbco, sic veto — 
tluntas."* 

Anti-Slavery, or equal, impartial, and universal 
liberty is the greatest of Democratic doctrines. — 
The Anti-Federalists, or original Democrats, oppos- 
ed the adoption of the Constitution on this very 
ground, among others, that contrary to the whole 
gist of the American revolution, it permitted the 
enslaving of human beings, and conferred upon their 
enslavers political power, just in proportion as they 
violated this first principle of a free republic. But 
modern Democracy has become the chief prop of 
Slavery. 

And why is all this 1 It is because Democrats 
have allied themselves with Slavery for the sake of 
the federal offices, dignities, and emoluments, and 
the price they have stipulated to pay is blind obedi- 
ence and entire submission to the will of slavehold- 
A.nd inasmuch as none but inferior and dis- 
honest men would embrace such corruption and sub- 
mit to such degradation, hence it has happened that 
• ad continued depredations have 
been committed upon the Treasury of the Nation ; 
and hence also the repudiation of the fundamental 
and si!: i '..!< nl doctrine of Democracy, tl 
and honors should be bestowed upon the most 
worthy. 

I nei plete anti- 

podes of the Locofoco ori all these points. I might 
them a great many others, subordinate, per- 
haps, in importance, but bringing up contrasts 
ing ; and I now pat it to you, to every 
Abolitionist, and to every discerning man in the 



clenl form li Em 

i ■ . . i jon," 



[9 



land, whether the main political reliance of the 
friends of justice, humanity, and universal em 
pation must not necessarily, in this country, be 
placed upon the Whig Party. And this Whig 
Tarty goes security for Henry Clay's fidelity to 
their known principles and habits of actio; 
their long established system of policy. 

* * * ♦ ♦ 

But Clay needs no security. He is a man, who 
would be more likely, from a false sense of honor, to 
keep a bad promise than he would, for want of com- 
mon honesty, to violate a good one. 

Indeed the question has not been raised by any 
party or person, whether Henry Clay would keep a 
promise ; but some have denied that he has made 
one. 1 1 he has not done it, and done it clearly and 
beyond cavil, then I oppose him to the death ; then 
will I traverse the land day and night, calling upon 
the people to awake from their fatal security. But 
first let us see whether Henry Clay is really trying 
his hand at a swindle. A mistake in this matter 
would not only be very unjust to him, but extreme- 
ly discreditable and injurious to ourselves. We 
must take all his words together. This is a rule 
which we apply to the meanest wretch arraigned at 
the bar of justice. 

In the first place, as to the means by which Mex- 
ico has been dismembered, Texas severed from her, 
and put de facto in a condition to treat for Annexa- 
tion, he says : — 

" The signal success of that revolution was great- 
ly aided, it not wholly achieved, by citizens of the 
United States, who had migrated to Texas. The 
succors, if they could not a'waysjbe prevented by 
the Government of the United States, were furnish- 
ed id a manner, and to an extent which brought up- 
on us seme national reproach in the eves of an im- 
partial world. And in my opinion they impose on us 
the obligation of scrupulously avoiding the imputa- 
tion of having instigated and aided the revolution 
with the ultimate view of territorial aggrandize- 
ment." 

Secondly, as to the motive, he says : 
" It is useless to disguise that there are those who 
espouse, and those who oppose the Annexation of 
Texas, upon the ground of ihe influence which it 
would exert in the balance of political power be- 
tween the two great sections of the Union. I con- 
ceive that no motive for the acquisition of foreign 
territory would be more unfortunate, or pregnant 
with more fatal consequences to the Confederacy, 
than that of obtaining it for the purpose of stren rth- 
ening one part against another part of the com 
Confederacy. Such a principle, put into practical 
operation, would menace the existence, if it did not 
certainly sow the seeds of a dissolution of the Union. 
It would be to proclaim to the world an insatiate 
and unquenchable thirst for foreign conquest or ac- 
quisition of territory. For if to-day Texas be re- 
quired to strengthen one part, to-morrow Canada 
may be required to add strength to another, and 
after that might have been obtained, still other and 
further acquisitions would become necessary. 



'• Suppose Great Britain and Prance, <>c ■ >. 
them, were to take part with 
nifeeto, were to proclaim thai 

• a weak and h- Ipless ally to check the . 
■ >\ encroachment and ambition of an already i 
grown republic, seeking still further acquisitio 
<Ty ; to maintain : 1 

disconnected with the ' 

the propagation o) slat ' S'ates, 

would be the effect ol ;at ions upon 

the judgment of an impartial 

" I was aware, too, tha I 

and Tt > is scrip, and speculators in them, were ac- 
tively engaged in promoting the object of Annexa- 
tion." 

Thirdly, as to the consequences, he says : 

" Under the circumstances, if the Government 
of the United States were to acquire Texas, it would 
acquire along with it all the incumbrances which 
Texas is under, and among them the actual or sus- 
pended war between Mexico and Texas. Anncxa- 
'.ion and war with Mi vico c itiea 

one, I certainly am not willing to involve this coun- 
try in a foreign war for the object of acquiring 
Texas I know there are those who regard such a 
war with indifference, and as a trifling affair, on ac- 
count of the weakness of Mexico, and her inability 
to inflict serious injury upon this country. But I do 
not look upon it thus lightly. 1 regard all wars as 
great calamities, to be avoided if possible, and hon- 
orable peace as the wisest and truest policy of this 
country. What the United States most need, are 
union, peace, and patience. Nor do I think that 
the weakness of a power should form a motive, in 
any case, for inducing us to engage in, or to depre- 
ciate the evils of war. Honor, and good faith, and 
justice, are equally due from this country towards 
the weak as towards the strong And if an act of 
injustice were to be perpetrated towards any power, 
it would be more compatible with the dignity of the 
nation, arid in my judgment less dishonorable to in- 
flict it upon a powerful, instead of a weak foreign 
nation. But are we perfectly sure that we should 
be free from injury in a state of war with Mexico 1 
Have we any security that countless numbers of 
foreign vessels, under the authority and flag of Mex- 
ico, would not prey upon our defenceless commerce 
m the Mexican Gulf, on the Pacific ocean, an 
every other sea and ocean ? What commerce, 
the other hand, does Mexico offer, as an indemnity 
for our losses, to the gallantry and enterprizo ef our 
countrymen 1 This view of the subject supposes 
that the war would be confined to the United . v . 

Mexico as the only belligerents. But have we 
any certain guarantee that Mexico would obtain no 
among the great European Powers ! Should 
Texas be annexed to the Union, the United States 
will assu n? and become responsible for the debt of 
, be its amount what it may. What it is, i 
do not know certainly ; but the least I hive s-> 
stated at is thirteen millions of dollars. And 
responsibility will exist, whether there be a 
lation in the treaty or not, expressly assumii.^ 
payment of the debt of Texas." 

Fourthly, as to the conditions on which he leaves 
it to be inferred that he would or might cons^ 
tys : 

" I have hitherto considered the question upon 
. texation is attempted 
without the assent of [f she yield; 

consent, that would materially affect the f< c 



20 



move ail for- 

[think 

wise 

duci.- I 

earnest • radi- 
cate prejud .cord. 
.> produce ;. II ;iar.s 
of Ol;r ' cy. -\:.il ITI 

me, pints to the duty of reod< 

ben hoppy, prosperous, andsatistj i other 

rather than to at'- Iroduce aliei 

Dst t Ijo common consent, and with the certainty 
fat i Mr. J( ffereon expn 
the opinion, and others believed, that it nevi - 
in the contemplation of the 

tution to add foreign territory t> the Confederacy, 
out of winch new States were in I I did 

not believe that any Executivi 

would venture u| ntoua a > ro- 

il only will:- i 
blii opinion in favor oi it, hut in direct oppo- 
• to strong and d .cssions of public 

■ ion. 

.' the loss of national character, with 
out the hazard war, with the <" 

urenci I e nai ion, without ;'.' ■ 

aad without givi 
unreasonable price for Texas, il. An- 

, ■ 
a difiereut light from that in which, I appreh 
rded " 
'• In < 

■ 
character, r with Mexi- 

i 

..I 711,1 

11 

■ 

i 

■ 



other from 

I 
into i' . 

ks." It is I 

In i 

;<1 Tor truth ... 
lime, that they >atia- 

.- so extended i 
1 vish. 1 would recommend to every per- 
son who it: . c-jr to the 
letter. It will net weary; it will never be 
stale. It < the means and motives of the 

ly deprecates the 
inevitable coi .=. The conditions on which 

it is : it he would be willing to admit 

Texas, are such as, under any supposable state of 
facts, must forever exclude it. They are : 

1st, The consent of Mexico. This will neverbe 
so long :..- • ry retains its ::depen- 

Mr. Poinsett was instructed by Mr Clay, 
under Mr. Adams, to negotiate, and to offer a mil- 
lion of dollars for Texas. There Were then very- 
few Americans in it, and hot a small po] a! at ion of 
any kind. Slavery had not then b ed in 

id the decree of abolition been re 
with arms ai tators 

from the United ! I i ivory hid 

been less attended to am 
the whole cyclopedia! 

'•Oh . 
He: 

I well rem 

. 
was a ■ crr.- 

wcrc negotiating for the cession of the I 

c tho 
f'Fl 

• ated 

■ 

. will 
1 am 
-:ncw 

I 

guilt 

. ■- ■■ ' 



country by Mr W 
Char 
stroctions of .1. ickson, did , r m a 

(•try. 

Mr. W ,lij not 

state he re- 

■ 

conqu 

'rxicii as mean and :■ - ii 

took advantage i f a p< rii d i 
an em] 

I CO.'l 

! 
Constitution of Mexico, forbade on of 

any portion of the national domain. 1 
pros ' spoken bitl 

matizing our Government as a p 
[Poinsett] entered into deep and 9 in- 

trigues, to elevate to power a party and a chief 

were expected to be more accon 
but. when this hid been accomplish ■ pst of 

violating the Constitution — lor Guerrero had the 
rotes oi 9, and Pedraza of 11 States — it was found 
that there was such an intense < x pi tiic 

people against our Minister, tint ho could pi 
effect the <>l.j?rt of his labor main in the 

country. Under the pressure of the universal i 
natio im, the Mexican Government was 

d to request his recal. President : 
rero performed this task wUh expressions of per- 
I friendship and good will towards the Minister. 
Well lie might, for Poinsett, by Ins most ub war- 
able interference, and his masonic cabals, had 
; him President ; but ho could not keep him 
so. In less than a twelvemonth he was deposed, 
rously pensioned : but. on engaging in an 
insurrection, ho was made prisoner, tried, con- 
ned, and executed. So much for being the 
;ant. 

sor, was an ab- 
. Texas land jobber. He was 
sole ly because be 
dc'ison as a man stimulated by avarice, luxury, 
and misery, and capable, by his utter destituti 
virtue and honor, of io darling pi 

through all the dirty ways of intrigue and corrup- 
tion. It has ti mule this ap- 
pointment with some reference to I of the 
person for the employment. Bill so strong and 
iively was the. excite merit both in the 
nimer.it on account of 
I.e. did not, for nearly three . 

subject of the cession, and he writes to 
1 1 ih it he c msidered it prudi 
set should be cam 
• 'oplc." He also obson 
into power " which his 1 1 dei 
ired to be so bostil 
'. it would be in vain to expect from them 
Like, justice.'' Fortunate for the United 
it was so, and that tl i v w< re 
according to the deserts of t insett 

had been instructed by Jackson and Van Buren to 

■ 
ewed t ) Bull* r ; but 
subsequently, upo 

. 
remove," B 
inffton h? the purpose of conferring per- 
the Pxesident and Secretary of State, about this 
•'^•-■nl'.:,^ block." He cam- »»,< the, rr-snit of 



n 

ply '1 

- 

■ 

• 

of an 

not elucidai 

as 1 

• 
that '• n ) confidi 1 
intend d to 1 

id f el - » . 
in it, that he now directt d Bu ler to in- 
clude in the 
tory larger than 

about 800,000 sqii ire mil 00 pf 

acres, being half of the entire republic of Mexico ! 
j t wa9, that a scheme ol I and 

rank I 

5 id B ii ; . 1 di pute I an< ev to carry ; 
with astringent and repeated charpe I 1 
negotiation, and communicate the result, so that the 

son's administration, Jackson's own words a*. 
ing with him were : 

',' Proceed tp Mexico, and urge wiih all vour force. 

a speedy conclusion t lion, no as to 

us have the resujl 'e, by the 1 

Congress " 

In cue of his letters to Jackson, Butler said : 
" It will require a few months to pit everything 
in motion ; I . I pi pself — mark me — I give 

not 
ssession .'" 
Jackson at lengi it fully dis- 

closed, I and imp 

nen! ; 

Butler. On ;. the 

letter j er to 

■ which the , 

iii.il accomplices and co-ci 
ticularly Hoi <as. 

•• Tin dismissal he [.' 
anticipates n;y ( g but 

the dei hi felt in ae< laic of 

hive induced me to n main I 

haps bo ; and 

how far try failur 

tributed to tiic indiscretion of ceri< 

ajjeel to be. , a?id 

be (or aftorcimea ' 

IHBY ARE." 

atcly open the failure of Jack 

■■.on. 






mall ir:nJt r ] ne of 

: judicial invi 

• d fiir 
iisui'. I - under the 

of duty for 
■ i shop in Ml 
i »iih Havana cigai He a fused 

is pri- 

l . ■'. States to exempt 

it mi braent. He as- 

in the streets with a 

large knoltt by letter to 

assault and chastise in a public n Tor- 

try ol VI ar. 

men ■ of Mexico, that 

liutii ifamous in his private character, 

that no A 

him. ijuestcd by the Mexican Ciu- 

::ncd and continued his out- 
- after the arrival of his successor, he was or- 
d to quit the country. Other disgraceful de- 
tails might be given, but these are a sufficient spe- 
the consequences of such a system of ap- 
pointments as crept into the Government with An- 
drew Jackson, and lias continued ever since. 

The Mexicans having in the beginning given the 
emigrants land as a charity at their own solicit a 
having exempted thctn from taxes and duiies for 
fears, protected their industry, and passed laws 
for their accommodation with a kindness and liber- 
ality altogether unparalleled — have been deeply 
wounded by the ungrateful and treacherous return 
which a portion of the emigrants, with the help oi 
their American allies, have made. Citizens of thu 
United States from being the most beloved and trust- 
ed, have become the most odious of all foreigners 
If there ever was a deep seated and inextinguisha- 
ble nation-il resentment, it now exists in the bosom 
of M i is the Texans, and their American 

allies. Divided on questions of internal govern- 
ed in deter- 
mined hostility to these. This is a spell of power 
. .. can make them unite, and fall order! 
The common designation of the Ti 
greal m my years before the war was " los 
colonos ingratoss," the ungrateful emigrants. The 
Mexicans are g< ncrous, hospitable, and brave ; they 
are B iseseed of so much energy or 

phy> i Americans, bul they have large 

•city. 
1 now put it to you whether il for that 

,- retain a national 
to gr. ad aid to the consummation of 

the e i operating al 

tweir • grade them, 

• 
ik all "ii ill- 
as is- - *od 

placed 
i„ j, . • md humane 

rail IfMi I 
n but that of the const 

\ 

tinned !>v .Mi t' iv : i. .1 late c mi.. i:..ej'.: o to t:,< 



editor of a paper in Alabama. In that he says : 

"1 1 Union a great political partner- 

ship : and that new members ought not to be ad- 
mitted into the concern at the imminent hazard o; 
solution. Personally, 1 could have no objec- 
tion to the Annexation of Texas ; but I certainly 
would be unwilling to sec the existing luion dil 
veil or seriously jeoparded for the sake of acquiring 

It is a principle of law that no new partner 
be admitted into a partnership without the consent 
of each of the old ones. Mr. (Jlay mentions parti- 
cular Stati 1 in v:cw of whose repugnance to 
measure, he. laid down his rule. These were Ohio, 
Vermont, and Massachusetts In my opinion, the 
decided opposition of any one State, would create 
the contingency upon which Mr 1 mise 

would attach. But, beyond all doubt, the decided 
: three States would bind him in terms 
to oppose Annexation. Is not this sufficient 1 Does 
it not secure the object at least for four years. I 
have not the least fear that the time will ever come 
when we cannot get a dozen States to resist to the 
last the extension of slavery and the slave-trade, by 
the agency of this nation ; or the imposition of taxes 
upon the honest industry of this people, for the pur- 
pose of bestowing principalities upon the ingrates 
the renegades, and conspirators of Texas, and the 
blacklegs of the L'nited States. 

Other objections stated by Mr. Clay arc in their 
nature permanent, and immovable, that for instance 
at the game of adding to ore part to strength- 
en it against another part of the confederacy. This 
unquestionably is the primary motive. Mr. Clay 
knew it ; it has been formally and officially avowed 
by Tyler, Upshur. Colhoun, Southern Legislatures 
and the leading Southern presses. This objection 
is based upon a state of mind, inseparable from 
Southern Slavery, and it cannot be obviated by any- 
thing short of the abolition of Slavery. But indeed 
the whole tenor and spirit of the letter is eminently 
just, benevolent, and pacific, wholly and tetolally 
incompatible with the injustice, fraud, and violence, 
which have marked the design, the means, the in- 
■., and progress of the Annexation conspi- 
racy. 

The declaration of Mr. Clay that " personally he 
has no objection to the Annexation of Texis," has 
been much animadverted upon ; and it is the only 
ige of till that he has written on this subject 
winch our able friend and coadjutor, George Brad- 
burn, has thought proper to quote or to allude to 
in showing Mr Clay op, and putting him down. I 
think, that on reflecti n. Bradbum will be sensible 
that it is as unworthy of himself ai 

Friend Bradbum teaches, if I 
tand him, the doctrine that da set ming 

to be what we arc not, is a justification oi not 

■ we really are ; and that he would not 
be should hin 
if it would st (in to his Ann S 
very 1 1 to be wrong and in- 

and so forfeit tie ami confi- 

|)|d have this 1 Si Ct, till re no. 
ihr.ii 1 v wro ■ ught 

S rely such tyi 
31 . '. • 1 > . 

■ 
matt p trts : 
'• |. . d from thi 

■ 
• tween M 



23 



Texas had not been terminated by any treaty 
of peace. Mr. Tyler not only did not ask the con- 
sent of Mexico, but he announced th.it her assent to 
the annexation was altogether unnecessary." 

"A powerful opposition had arisen in the United 
States against the Annexation of Texas to them. 
Several States had declared through their Legisla- 
tures, against it, and others, if not whole sections 
of the Union, were believed to be adverse to it. — 
This was the opposition to the measure to which in 
my Raleigh letter, I alluded, when I spoke of a con- 
siderable and respectable portion of the Confede- 
racy. I did not refer to persons, but to States or 
sections. 

"Under such circumstances I could not but re- 
gard the Annexation of Texas, at this time, as com- 
promising the honor of my country, involving it in 
a war, in which the sympathies of all Christendom 
would be against us, and endangering the integrity 
of the Union. I thought then, and still believe, 
that national dishonor, foreign war, and distraction 
and division at home, were too great sacrifices to 
make for the acquisition of Texas." 

" I have no hesitation in saying that, far from 
having any personal objection to the Annexation of 
Texas, I should be glad to see it, without dishonor, 
without war, with the common consent of the Union, 
and upon just and fair terms. I do not think that 
the subject of Slavery ought to affect the question, 
one way or the other. Whether Texas be inde- 
pendent or incorporated in the United States, I do 
not believe it will prolong or shorten the duration of 
that institution. It is destined to become extinct at 
some distant day, in my opinion, by the operation of 
the inevitable laws of population. It would be un- 
wise to refuse a permanent acquisition, which will 
exist as long as the globe remains, on account of a 
temporary institution." 

Here Mr. Clay reaffirms the leading and essential 
points of his first letter, but there is a new matter 
:'rom which I entirely dissent, viz : " I do not think 
that the subject of slavery ought to affect the ques- 
tion, one way or the other. Whether Texas be in- 
dependent or incorporated in the United States, I 
do not believe it will prolong or shorten the duration 
of slavery. It is destined to become extinct at 
some distant day, in my opinion, by the operation 
of the inevitable laws of population." 

It is remarkable that Mr. Clay and the Liberty 
Party should agree in belittling the bearing which 
the Texas question has upon slavery. Both are 
wrong, and both are refuted by themselves. For 
many years the leaders and the presses of the Li- 
berty Party were in the habit of denouncing Annex- 
ation as a wily and flagitious contrivance for the re- 
lief and support of slavery, and as demanding a 
vigilance more wakeful, and a resistance more dread 
than any, or all other pro-slavery movements, of 
the times. This was the unvaried tone of them 
all, until the Whig party in honest and inevitable 
conformity with their action in Congress and in 
State Legislatures for the last eight years, proclaim- 
ed uncompromising hostility to the scheme, and 
struck the treaty dead. Up to that time, proceed- 
ing upon the ignorant and unwarrantable assump- 
tion that neither of the great parties intended as 
such to oppose it, the Liberty Party leaders and 
presses gave out that it would be a compensa- 
tion for the extreme nroffigacy and perniciousness 
of the measure, that it wbvild prodigiously increase 
ther party. Some even piously affected to believe 
i.:.*: Providence permitted a pro slavery plot so 



dreadful, to be hatched for that very purpose ! — 
But as soon as it became apparent that the Whigs 
must in ccssarily be the centre of this resistance, 
and that capital could not be made oi it by a mi- 
nor party, the "Third Party" leaders suddenly 
changed their tone, and declared Annex al 
bagatelle, and opposition to it a Whig stalking- 
horse ! The alaveh dders of Southampton, arid 
some twenty counties more, were in such conster- 
nation at Nat Turner's insurrection, that they had 
breath only to cry, " arms, arms," " 1i.iy.h-," " in- 
human butchery," " the tomahawk and scalpmg- 
knife are nothing to this," but as soon aa humane 
and patriotic men from the western and middle parts 
of the State proposed, in view of that event, mea- 
sures for abolishing slavery, — those same slave- 
holders turned round and ridiculed the insurrec- 
tion as " a petty affair," and made a great deal of 
fun of it! The Locofocos did not give it a more 
decisive proof of their depravity, as a party, when 
for the sake of Texas and slavery, they turned 
their backs in a trice upon their professions, their 
instructions,; their constituents, and the majority 
rule, than did the Liberty Party leaders, in their 
svdden somerset on Texas. If these movements 
should be sustained by the mass of disinterested 
and reflecting men in those parties, it will inspire 
more fear and anxiety for the fate of this republic, 
than the curse of slavery, terrible as that has ever 
been, has caused, or ought to cause. 

Mr. Clay's declaration, countenancing, 
not intending to do so,) the foctiou cours 
Libert) Party leaders is abundantly • futei 
self in the Frankfort discourse, fro. 
extracts in the first part of this letter. T) 
of that discourse is to prove that ig up o* 

the slave territory to the full exten 
would reduce the price, and make 
a losing business ; and he specified -ry fact 

of the annexation of Louisiana," as 
of the enhancement of the price 
consequently the prolongation of 
then, the question is reduced to a si 
rule of three. If it has taken forty • 
Louisiana and Florida, so as at leng 
price of slaves begin to descend, ar 
humanity to rise, how long will i 
up Texas, which will furnish more and ■■ 
for planting, than we have ever h 
over this land is better and more ex 
ed to sugar planting, and of course 
there assume its crudest characte. 
sentence containing this mistake, Mi CI 
on "the laws of population," fo> 
slavery. What is this but a new p : 
self of the error with which it is I. How 

are the "laws of population" to o 
than municipal laws on subjects per j 
their grasp, first by going to Text 
vitably will) beyond it, " p ti 
out," in the words of Wise, "wi 
and finding no limit but the Souther 
objectionable opinion does not imp 
previously given by Mr. Clay, he 
we ail knew before, that he is oppoi 
for not so many and not so good rco 

Mr. Clay has said other things at 
from which I dissent, and from win 
tionist must ever dissent from and < 
most obnoxious of them was said in 
February, 1839, viz: "Were la 
planting States — the Southern or - 












Id continue 
'jal or 

timent, 
Mr. CU 

, i.c has 
cd to it, to I 
[udeed ibt 

nd ottering 
blicly and . mned it. 

[n .in; ri 
pinion of its author has undergone n 

I cild believe 
. ,'o cur:y fa- 
juth, hoping thereby to obtain 

Dcy. Thit he cherished such 
uenced by it, I < o not doubt ; 
,d he did not act the hypocrite. The 
been habitual to him, and was sin- 
Frankfort discourse, delivered ten 
e expressed bimseli to the same cf- 

stion werp submitted whether there 
ncdiate, or gradual emancipation of 
i the United States, without their re- 

;/. ittOD, painful as it is to express the 
no doubt that it would be unwise to 

words arc to he taken together to as- 

. 
ermine his real character. Mr. Clay, 
I, reared, and educated am: 

. and though poor 

upon popular favor, started m h!e 

a the popular current, and demanding 

•ards of Kentucky the abolition oi 

iiaatbropic ci 

lility have been 
little ! I A niata to do at this 

■ 
■ml critt rion of its mi rit. 
, respo 

,. The 

trumpet- toned .• 

i 
were com 

t i i. 

■ 

i lien- 

.1 scrvi. 

■ 



• torn," he 
■ 
'Kinds were torn from tbi 

Iren, brethren from each > 
•_r, and i very tie • nd respected an 

d." '-They are rational beings 
ction, and 

judging tO them as a ppr- 

umanrace." "All the fruits of. 
re reaped by others." "They are 
rent, therefore, to the adverst 
■ rout fori ui " " There are 

ibteflly many exceptions in which the i i 

r with a zealous and 
aua devotion." "Slavery is wrong, all wrong 
— wrong to the mas r, a grievous wrong to the 
■ ." '• It is evil, continually evil." " It is i 
upon the nation" "Among the acts of my 
; fe v.iuch 1 look back satisfaction, ts 

that of my having co-opcra''d with other zealous 
and intelligent friends, to procure the adoption of 
that system [rhe Pennsylvania plan of emancipa- 
■t thi Si ite." 
These 1 believe to be unsophisticated effusions of 
Henry Clay's heart. In respect to the oppri 
of ttie. Indians, he has uttered agaio and again deep 
tones of grief and indignation. I anticipate 
you a remark which is natural and unavo dabla to 
one in your and my state of mind. These humane 
sentiments and just views only render the more 
practice of oppression ! God 
: id thi I 1 should ga nsay this. That Henry ( 
should have lollu -..1 htmeel! by forming and 
tmuiojj . connection with a system which 

he so early shw to ! e " all wrong,'' is one of i.. 

ing incongruities in human conduct which 
equally pain the heart and puzzle the brain. — 
But it i^ an inc. rio greater oor •■■ 

it Christianity el warring oatii 
!t is difficult for us in the free States to make due 
ince for the force of slaveholding habits and 
duetive influence of surrounding ex- 
iction 
it is a pr 

false '■ beset the 

..nd does net 
In the tl h 
■ 
"few." No aane man will pretend thai 
of anck nt I 

>-tan, were 
1 1 and 
bun ' 
lanctli 

• 

■ 

aft ! But i 

i ■ 
lv i ». ■ ilavi r\ . and 









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